Living Building Challenge stewards expand city’s role as green manufacturing center

Vitro Architectural Glass (formerly PPG Glass) joined the International Living Future Institute (ILFI) and Pittsburgh-based Green Building Alliance (GBA) to launch the country’s first Living Product Hub in Pittsburgh on April 18. The event took place at the Center for Sustainable Landscapes at Phipps Conservatory, which was constructed with energy-saving Vitro Glass. It is one of the few buildings in the world to achieve the highest certification available from the Living Building Challenge program, which is administered by the ILFI.

Richard A. Beuke, vice president, Vitro Architectural Glass, opened the ceremony by citing Pittsburgh’s legacy as green building pioneer and its transformation from a smoky steel town into a global center of innovation. He also described Vitro Glass’s role in that transformation, as a leading innovator of environmentally advanced low-emissivity (low-e) glasses developed at the company’s research lab just outside the city.

Vitro Glass products such as Solarban®, Sungate® and Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glasses are featured on Pittsburgh’s most globally recognized green buildings, which include the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, the world’s first green convention center; PPG Paints Arena, one of the country’s first LEED®-certified professional hockey arenas; and The Tower at PNC Plaza, opened in 2015 as the world’s greenest office tower.

James Connelly, director of the the Living Product Challenge for ILFI, said the mission of Pittsburgh’s Living Product Hub is to help local manufacturers replicate the “genius of nature” in the design and development of site-specific sustainable buildings. As examples, he cited nature’s ability to create Douglas firs that thrive in Seattle as well as cacti that flourish in Phoenix.

Co-located on Pittsburgh’s South Side with GBA, the Living Product Hub will serve as a center of education and outreach, connecting innovative buildings, communities, and projects to ILFI’s global network. The Pittsburgh facility is the first of four Living Product Hubs that ILFI is planning in the U.S.

In addition to the Center for Sustainable Landscapes, Vitro Glass has been specified for two other certified living buildings: the Energy Lab at Hawaii Preparatory Academy in Kamuela and Bullitt Center in Seattle. There are fewer than a dozen certified living buildings in the world.

Administered by ILFI, the Living Building Challenge is a rigorous green building certification program that requires buildings to comply with 20 imperatives in seven building performance categories including place, energy, water, health and happiness, materials, equity, and beauty.

ILFI’s third annual Living Product Expo will be held at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center on Sept. 12-14. For more information or to register, visit www.livingproductexpo.org.

About the Living Product Challenge
The Living Product Challenge re-imagines the design and construction of products to function as elegantly and efficiently as anything found in the natural world. The creation of this program kicked off a groundbreaking new event that brought together leading minds in the product industry to inspire a revolution in the way materials are designed, manufactured and delivered: the Living Product Expo.

About Vitro Architectural Glass
Vitro Architectural Glass, part of Vitro, S.A.B. de C.V. (BMV:VITROA), is a new organization created from Vitro’s acquisition of PPG’s flat glass business unit. Now the largest company of its kind in the Americas, Vitro Architectural Glass manufactures industry-leading brands such as Solarban®, Sungate® and Starphire Ultra-Clear™ glasses at U.S. plants in Carlisle, Pennsylvania; Fresno, California; Salem, Oregon; and Wichita Falls, Texas. The company also operates one of the world’s largest glass research and development facilities in Pittsburgh and four residential glass fabrication plants in Canada. For more information, please visit vitroglazings.com.

Starphire Ultra-Clear is a trademark and Solarban and Sungate are registered trademarks owned by Vitro.LEED – an acronym for LEADERSHIP IN ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN® – is a registered trademark of the U.S. GREEN BUILDING COUNCIL®.
The PPG Logo is a registered trademark of PPG Industries Ohio, Inc.